Robert King

Tony Burnett shares his Indianapolis explosion exp...: Burnett lives across the street from the scene of the explosion. (Robert King / The Star)

One of the homes damaged by Saturday night's explosion on the Far Southside. / Ryan Sabalow / The Star

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Tony Burnett, 49, lives at 8348 Fieldfare Way. He was in bed late Saturday night watching the Notre Dame football game he heard a loud bang.

He said his house shook, and drywall began falling from his ceiling, then from his walls. His doors and windows were gone.

Barefoot and in his shorts, he ran outside and saw that the house of his neighbor across the street, at 8349, had been obliterated.

He said thinks that neighbor wasn't home because their garbage can had been out front for a few days.

The house just to the south of that was decimated too, a neighbor he'd seen home earlier Saturday. Soon nearby houses were catching fire.

"When I got outside it was still snowing, with all the pieces insulation and vinyl siding coming down," he said.

Burnett said one of his cars looked like it had been smashed in an accident. The other had broken windows. He made it safely out of his home, except for a foot cut by glass. So did his wife, who had been in another part of the house when the explosion occurred. And so did their two dogs.

Burnett's wife took the dogs and went to stay with relatives. But he wanted to stay near the house, and slept in the Red Cross shelter set up at Mary Bryan Elementary.

About a quarter mile away, John Hancock was having a bonfire with friends to celebrate his 42nd birthday when they heard a tremendous boom.